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Mental Gymnastics…continued
stroke in a nutshell is absolutely correct. The margin for error was a tactical decision by Wawrinka that allowed him to get back into the match when it looked like Berdych was going to have his way with him. He incrementally narrowed his margins as he got more and more comfortable with the situation.
The long version is below...
Certainly nerves play a huge part in any given tennis match. Particularly in an ATP 500 final where both contestants feel that they have something to gain from winning. I have seen some ATP 500 where top four players have been involved and they appear to actually lose interest…in winning.
But neither of these two lost interest which was nice to see. Stan Wawrinka could have decided to pack it in and catch an earlier flight out of town but he decided to stay and make the best of the given situation. With his head to head against Tomas Berdych he had to be saying to himself when Berdych was hitting on all eight cylinders…"this guy cannot keep this up against ME!". He would have been right if he was saying that to himself…Tomas couldn't. But he went down trying.
He may have completed his mission if he had kept his cool just a bit and not gone off and arguing about inconsequential details for no apparent reason. John McEnroe was a genius in the cadence of a tennis match. He picked his fights…and he picked them at the right time. Timing is everything. This was absolutely the wrong time to let something disrupt the flow of concentration with a set in hand and up in the second on serve.
These are mental gymnastics and this is a situation that one would think that an experienced player such as Tomas Berdych would not allow himself to be sucked into. There was a lot of pressure on both players and it isn't often a matter of choking. That is a rather simplistic explanation. There are reasons…always reasons. Not to be misconstrued as excuses.
Wawrinka failed in his first attempt to serve out the match but he nailed the coffin shut on the second attempt. His failure to serve it out the first time may have been further evidence that his form is not as sharp as he would like it to be…yet he found a way to win.
There's what happened…just as I laid the blueprint for the match. The design. Stan found a way to win with less than his best stuff. He played a really good match mentally and he had even built in a margin for error in the third set by cementing two breaks of serve. He didn't coast on one break…he persevered and put another in the bank just in case. As it turned out he needed it.
This was a very good tennis match by both players. One of them had to lose. Berdych started out hitting on all eight cylinders but Stan weathered the storm and "hung in there". He knew that there was no way that Berdych could maintain that level of dominance over him if he had something to say about it. His big howitzer wasn't firing in the beginning so he bought himself some time by slicing and playing smart defence. When he started to feel a bit more comfortable…he started to play a little more aggressive defence…until finally he had the bull by the horns and wrestled him down…aggressively. It wasn't pretty for Wawrinka but he got the job done. This is a sign of maturity in a tennis player. He let the game come to him and took it to Berdych in increments. He played it smart.
Berdych on the other hand may have been banking mentally on the blowout. He was very sharp and very confident. It could be that in his mental gymnastics and preparation he forgot a contingency plan to include a dog fight. A fight every step of the way. After he was dominating so well in the beginning he may have just let his guard down a bit as evidenced by his out burst in the second set. He let Wawrinka back in the door…instead of slamming it shut as he had probably visualized in his prematch mental gymnastics.
The commentators were doing a pretty good job in calling the match. Peter Fleming in particular. At the end they were speculating a bit into the future and their assessment was that Wawrinka will probably not win another major and Berdych never will. They had their reasons for saying so.
Tomas Berdych is playing the wrong game. He should have switched to a one hand backhand when he was thirteen and developed an all-court game. His success in the junior ranks may have been less spectacular but such a "blueprint" would have been paying huge dividends at this point in his career. There isn't any magic in the fact that Wawrinka can pound it one handed. There are other players doing it. John Yandell writes an all encompassing article on how it is done not to mention why. It takes foresight. It takes ingenuity. It takes balls to go against the grain. Tennis is a culture. It isn't that one specimen can turn it around. The culture change would make the whole thing elementary. But I'm afraid that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Head for the hills! I did…I haven't been sorry. Yet.
Originally posted by stroke
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The long version is below...
Originally posted by don_budge
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Mental gymnastics.
It's a see-saw battle and it appears that Wawrinka may have the upper hand. That can change too. But this is where the head to head my just start to creep into Tomas' head.
It's a see-saw battle and it appears that Wawrinka may have the upper hand. That can change too. But this is where the head to head my just start to creep into Tomas' head.
But neither of these two lost interest which was nice to see. Stan Wawrinka could have decided to pack it in and catch an earlier flight out of town but he decided to stay and make the best of the given situation. With his head to head against Tomas Berdych he had to be saying to himself when Berdych was hitting on all eight cylinders…"this guy cannot keep this up against ME!". He would have been right if he was saying that to himself…Tomas couldn't. But he went down trying.
He may have completed his mission if he had kept his cool just a bit and not gone off and arguing about inconsequential details for no apparent reason. John McEnroe was a genius in the cadence of a tennis match. He picked his fights…and he picked them at the right time. Timing is everything. This was absolutely the wrong time to let something disrupt the flow of concentration with a set in hand and up in the second on serve.
These are mental gymnastics and this is a situation that one would think that an experienced player such as Tomas Berdych would not allow himself to be sucked into. There was a lot of pressure on both players and it isn't often a matter of choking. That is a rather simplistic explanation. There are reasons…always reasons. Not to be misconstrued as excuses.
Wawrinka failed in his first attempt to serve out the match but he nailed the coffin shut on the second attempt. His failure to serve it out the first time may have been further evidence that his form is not as sharp as he would like it to be…yet he found a way to win.
Originally posted by don_budge
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You see…one of the defining hallmarks of a championship tennis player is finding a way to win when they don't have their best stuff. Sort of like a major league baseball pitcher. They find a way to get the job done.
I'm going to go with Wawrinka on this one. Just so we have a bad cop…as juxtaposed to our very own good cop…klacr. This match potentially could be either a very good match or a blowout by Berdych. I don't see Wawrinka breezing through. Berdych has much too much to win. He is looking at those last 9 of 10 results head to head and thinks that it is high time to put this nonsense to rest. Plus he feels he has something to defend as he was the champion last year. Wawrinka on the other hand is looking to scrap by or to regain the form that he is capable of.
Interesting mental gymnastics being performed in the mental preparation for this match by both players.
I'm going to go with Wawrinka on this one. Just so we have a bad cop…as juxtaposed to our very own good cop…klacr. This match potentially could be either a very good match or a blowout by Berdych. I don't see Wawrinka breezing through. Berdych has much too much to win. He is looking at those last 9 of 10 results head to head and thinks that it is high time to put this nonsense to rest. Plus he feels he has something to defend as he was the champion last year. Wawrinka on the other hand is looking to scrap by or to regain the form that he is capable of.
Interesting mental gymnastics being performed in the mental preparation for this match by both players.
This was a very good tennis match by both players. One of them had to lose. Berdych started out hitting on all eight cylinders but Stan weathered the storm and "hung in there". He knew that there was no way that Berdych could maintain that level of dominance over him if he had something to say about it. His big howitzer wasn't firing in the beginning so he bought himself some time by slicing and playing smart defence. When he started to feel a bit more comfortable…he started to play a little more aggressive defence…until finally he had the bull by the horns and wrestled him down…aggressively. It wasn't pretty for Wawrinka but he got the job done. This is a sign of maturity in a tennis player. He let the game come to him and took it to Berdych in increments. He played it smart.
Berdych on the other hand may have been banking mentally on the blowout. He was very sharp and very confident. It could be that in his mental gymnastics and preparation he forgot a contingency plan to include a dog fight. A fight every step of the way. After he was dominating so well in the beginning he may have just let his guard down a bit as evidenced by his out burst in the second set. He let Wawrinka back in the door…instead of slamming it shut as he had probably visualized in his prematch mental gymnastics.
The commentators were doing a pretty good job in calling the match. Peter Fleming in particular. At the end they were speculating a bit into the future and their assessment was that Wawrinka will probably not win another major and Berdych never will. They had their reasons for saying so.
Tomas Berdych is playing the wrong game. He should have switched to a one hand backhand when he was thirteen and developed an all-court game. His success in the junior ranks may have been less spectacular but such a "blueprint" would have been paying huge dividends at this point in his career. There isn't any magic in the fact that Wawrinka can pound it one handed. There are other players doing it. John Yandell writes an all encompassing article on how it is done not to mention why. It takes foresight. It takes ingenuity. It takes balls to go against the grain. Tennis is a culture. It isn't that one specimen can turn it around. The culture change would make the whole thing elementary. But I'm afraid that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Head for the hills! I did…I haven't been sorry. Yet.
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